Gay Men’s Health Crisis Will Benefit When Mabel Comes Into the Room on March 31

Jerry Herman’s 1974 musical Mack & Mabel will be presented in a one-night-only, all-star benefit concert version at Avery Fisher Hall on Monday, March 31, as a benefit for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis.

Originally seen on Broadway in a short-lived but fondly remembered production that starred Robert Preston, Bernadette Peters, and Lisa Kirk, Mack & Mabel celebrates the bygone days of the silent film era in which Mack Sennett (who devised the Keystone Kops) and Mabel Normand were key players. Herman’s score contains such songs as “Time Heals Everything,” “I Won’t Send Roses,” and “Tap Your Troubles Away,” not to mention a famous overture.

Among the stars scheduled to appear in the GMHC concert are Michael Feinstein, Debbie Gravitte, Nathan Lane, Donna McKechnie, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Douglas Sills, Leslie Uggams, Marissa Jaret Winokur, the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes, and the “Uptown Express” pop group of the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus. The show will be produced by Jon Wilner, directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman, and choreographed by Dan Siretta, with Donald Pippin providing musical direction. Herman will supervise the production and is also scheduled to perform.

Tickets for the event, ranging upwards in price from $50, will be on sale at the Avery Fisher Hall box office beginning January 6. Gala benefit tickets at $500 and $1,000, which include prime orchestra seats plus admission to a reception to be held at an as yet undecided location before or after the show, may be purchased now by phoning the Gay Men’s Health Crisis at 212-367-1472. For further information, visit the website www.gmhc.org.